Fall River Drug Summit discusses importance of education, prevention

Dee Bettencourt didn’t know how serious her son’s substance abuse problems were until she got a call that delivered the news he was murdered in Providence when he and some friends were on a drug buy for the narcotic Oxycotin six years ago. “Once I went to his apartment and he was so s...

Dee Bettencourt didn’t know how serious her son’s substance abuse problems were until she got a call that delivered the news he was murdered in Providence when he and some friends were on a drug buy for the narcotic Oxycotin six years ago.

“Once I went to his apartment and he was so sick. I brought him back some ginger ale and chicken soup,” Bettencourt said. “That’s how naive I was.”

Marc Quital had just turned 20 when he was shot in the back by a drug dealer in what Bettencourt described as “a drug deal gone bad.”

Bettencourt said her son, once a bright and athletic young man who attended B.M.C. Durfee High School and dreamed of being a model, had managed to hide the magnitude of his addiction because he didn’t want his mother ashamed of him.

Bettencourt was one of the attendees at Saturday’s Fall River Drug Summit held at the Morton Middle School and sponsored by U.S. Rep. William Keating and Mayor Will Flanagan.

Keating, a former prosecutor, said that once someone starts taking drugs it is “so hard to stop, and frankly the success rate is pretty tough despite all our best efforts.”

“Education, prevention, acknowledging the issue, showing leadership across the board is how we can deal with it,” Keating said, “And I hope and trust we can save lives in what truly is the greatest epidemic faced in our country.”

The summit focused on prevention, treatment and enforcement when it comes to families and substance abusers dealing with the disease.

Of the 8,000 cases that go before Fall River District Court annually, Sutter said, a majority of cases are from Fall River and up to 15 percent are related to drug use, possession and distribution.

“But when you think about the other cases that are connected to drug abuse, drug addiction and drug dealing the numbers grow exponentially,” Sutter said.

Attorney Rene Brown knows first hand the grip of addiction can have on a person and the availability of drugs on the streets of the city.

“I was a drug addict in Fall River. It started when I was 14 years old with booze and pot. I was at the top of my class at Tiverton High School with scholarships to colleges,” Brown said. “I never thought I’d be a strung-out heroin addict at 20 years old.”

She moved to Fall River to get closer to the heroin.

Brown hit rock bottom more than once. She recalled living in Section 8 housing at 21 Danforth St. On welfare and food stamps, Brown leased out her son’s bedroom to a drug dealer and she was involved in illegal activity to feed her habit. She remembered looking in the mirror many times thinking she couldn’t live like this anymore.

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It wasn’t until drug-addicted women, some prostitutes, were being found murdered along area highways that Brown started her hard road to getting clean. It was Oct. 14, 1987, when Brown stopped using drugs.

Brown is now a local criminal defense attorney with three children who was sworn in five years ago to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I think there needs to be more funding for rehabilitation; people don’t recognize it’s a disease,” Brown said.

One solution to stem the tide of addiction discussed at the summit was establishing a drug court in the city that mirrors the one in New Bedford, an intensive judicially supervised treatment program that oversees participants a minimum of 12 months.

Attorney Amy Valente, who is involved in the New Bedford Drug Court, said it was time Fall River got on board because of its high rate of heroin use.

Flanagan told the audience that he fully supports bringing a drug court to Fall River.

“Because if you think you’re just going to put someone in a jail cell and keep them there for their sentence and they’ll be released and not re-offend, you will all be mistaken,” Flanagan said. “You need to get them on a path of rehabilitation.”

Six years after her son was murdered, Bettencourt said she’s trying to turn a negative into a positive. She volunteers at the BOLD substance abuse prevention coalition and wants to start a support group for parents of children who are drug-addicted or have died in drug-related deaths.

In addition to educating themselves about drugs, Bettencourt said communication with your children is key and to let them know they can trust you, good or bad.